Japan's ruling party faces crisis as far-right Sanseito gains influence

Sanseito warned of a "silent invasion" of foreigners, and leader Sohei Kamiya used a derogatory term for ethnic Koreans at a rally, later issuing an immediate apology

By Sakura Murakami and Akemi Terukina

 

This summer, after a poor showing in upper house elections, Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner found themselves having to govern without a majority in either chamber of the parliament. Adding to the shock was the surge in votes for Sanseito, a far-right populist party that grew out of a YouTube channel started during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sanseito’s slogan is “Japanese First,” and it campaigned on a mix of tax cutting, protections for farmers, vaccine skepticism and restrictions on immigration and foreign investment. 

The establishment conservative LDP still holds by far the most seats in the parliament, and the upper chamber is less powerful than the lower house. Still, the LDP’s electoral woes led to the resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. On Oct 4, the LDP is to set to anoint a new leader who will have to wrangle support from smaller political parties while trying to win back disaffected voters on the political right.

 

 

Sanseito has warned of a “silent invasion” of foreigners. During one campaign rally, party leader Sohei Kamiya used a derogatory term for ethnic Koreans before immediately apologizing. A book published by the party in 2022 spoke of Covid fears being stoked by “international Jewish financial capital.” The party says the book has been revised because of misleading wording, and it denies holding antisemitic views, as did Kamiya during a press conference this summer. 

In a statement sent through a spokesperson, Kamiya said many of the party’s supporters are people in their 30s through their 50s who are feeling increasing strain despite a resurgent stock market and corporate profits. “This is only leading to greater shareholder returns rather than income distribution,” he said, adding that the party will push for fiscal expansion and “fair income distribution.” Interviews with almost a dozen Sanseito voters or sympathizers revealed anger over stagnating real wages and alienation from the LDP. Some also spoke of anxieties about foreigners, a relatively small but growing presence in Japan.

 

Mieko Kudo, a 56-year-old nurse from Saitama, was drawn to Sanseito’s promise to cap the tax burden on workers at 35 per cent. It’s around 46 per cent now and is expected to gradually rise, as are the costs of caring for one of the oldest populations in the world. “When I look at my pay slip, I wonder why I have to pay so much in social insurance,” she says. She’s skeptical that the taxes are delivering much in return. “I’m in the medical industry, and I can see for myself that things aren’t getting better at all,” she says.

 

People such as Kudo fall between the gaps in the spectrum of Japan’s political parties, says Masaaki Ito, a professor at Seikei University in Tokyo who’s studied the rise of Sanseito. “There was a strong tendency to focus on the wealthier and poorer ends with little attention given to the middle,” he says.

 

On social media, that feeling of being left out is often expressed through claims that foreigners are getting priority over Japanese locals. For example, viral posts on X have complained that the government is providing grants to Chinese students while Japanese people spend years paying off education loans. Although there is a government program that has supported some foreign doctoral students, the ­majority of its beneficiaries have been Japanese.

 

Akane Ikeda, 32, who lives in Fukuoka and works as an urban design consultant, says she sympathized with her local Sanseito candidate’s pledges to tighten Japan’s rules for foreigners, though she voted for a more mainstream conservative party in the upper house election. “For example, I see foreign capital coming in to the rural areas of Japan but not investing in the local community,” she says. “I just feel that a lot of these frameworks ­concerning foreigners are sloppy from the outset.”

 

There have been moves by the government to tighten rules relating to ­foreigners, such as raising the level of capital needed to start a company as a foreigner to 30 million yen ($203,200) from its current 5 million yen. The government is also planning to prohibit tourists from obtaining temporary driver licenses. And it’s planning new limits on the doctoral scholarships for international students.

 

Some Sanseito supporters bristle at the depiction of the party as xenophobic, saying they welcome outsiders while comp­laining of what they see as a lack of qualifications. “For a long time, many foreigners came to Japan as migrant workers and worked hard, and I think that’s a really good thing,” says Eisuke Kobayashi, 39, who works in manufacturing and voted for the party. “I just think that the recent influx of foreigners has led to an increase in the number of low-quality foreigners, which is a problem.”

 

Not only do newcomers in Japan work, they hold many essential jobs in manufacturing and elder care. They’ve been a key source of badly needed labor as the population grays and shrinks, with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda noting that they accounted for more than half of the country’s labor force growth from 2023 to 2024, despite making up only 3 per cent of both the ­population and the workforce.

 

Yet the same aging problem that foreign workers are helping to solve has also held back the economy, and Sanseito voters have lost faith in the establishment’s ability to fix it. “Japan’s economy has been struggling for 30 years now,” Kobayashi says. “And the LDP has been in power for the better part of those 30 years.”

 

Ito, the professor, says the recent popularity of smaller parties including Sanseito shows that people are hoping for dramatic changes. “The question that follows is, what society do we want?” he says. “The direction is completely different depending on, say, whether we want a small or big government.”

 

In a political landscape full of older men in gray suits, the party’s youthfulness, bright orange campaign colors and its social media roots have gotten the attention of voters looking for a shake-up. “I don’t really think that Sanseito will change Japan, even though they have the ‘Japanese First’ slogan,” says Koichi Inoue, a 53-year-old business owner in Tokyo. He supported Sanseito, but says the LDP will continue to be the only party to have the know-how and clout to govern.